The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible expresses the skepticism of a life that has seen most things, and finds it hard to make sense of it all. The more we know about life, the more cynical we can become. We may have more, rather than less, unanswered questions as we age. We may find that religious faith, and personal trust in others, is harder rather than easier to come by. A friend who had experienced a great deal of betrayal and disappointment by people whom he expected more of, shared with me that his wife had taken it “all rather badly as it stings and hurts, and she doesn’t trust anyone just now.” There are plenty of reasons to doubt that there is a good and loving God if we look for them. Some of us may want to have a stronger faith but the advice people may give us may become reasons to doubt.

Lynn Anderson in If I Really Believe, Why Do I Have These Doubts? lists several reasons to doubt, several blind alleys seekers are encouraged to explore that lead them nowhere but to frustration.

First, is the advice that faith requires you to turn off your mind, and to just try harder to believe. “Don’t think about it – just believe!” Wanting to believe, or wishful thinking. does not make it so. Trying to ignore troublesome doubts, and attempting to sweep them under the rug, will not work. We fool ourselves if we try to believe by being intellectually dishonest. Closing our eyes to problems will not make them go away. God made our minds so that we can interpret what is happening in life. We are created to think through our understanding of life. That is why we have a book like Ecclesiastes in the Bible. It is the journal of an intelligent seeker who is struggling with trying to make sense of the issues of life. His words ‘are like goads, his collected sayings like firmly embedded nails – given by one Shepherd’(12:11). They are meant to goad us to action in our search for answers. When difficulties arise in life, we cannot dismiss them as though they do not matter. We must think through their implications and find a resolution of them in our beliefs. To be a Christian is not to commit intellectual suicide as some people contend, even if some Christians behave that way.

John Stott wrote a little book entitled, Your Mind Matters,ⁱ in which he criticized “the misery and menace of mindless Christianity.” He argues why it is important that we use our minds. “Faith is not credulity. H.L. Mencken…once said that ‘faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.’ But Mencken was wrong. Faith is not credulity. To be credulous is to be gullible, to be entirely uncritical, undiscerning and even unreasonable in one’s beliefs. But it is a great mistake to suppose that faith and reason are incompatible.”

The second reason to doubt is to assume that faith is like something you can catch. To this way of thinking all you have to do is to wait for faith to happen. It will be like waiting for lightning to strike, like it did Saul on the Damascus road. Parents who take this approach do not influence their children in any direction. They say that their children will make up their own minds when they grow up. Others say that the doubts their children experience will go away when they mature. I heard my aunt and uncle say that about their children. It was an excuse for them not going to church. As a result they deprived their children of the advantages of a childhood Christian education. They have had a hard time in adult life catching up.

More education or maturation does not necessarily bring faith. Faith is our response to revelation, and requires a choice on our part. Many people have reason to doubt because they believe that they have to do nothing and God has to do everything. God calls us to choose. “Choose you this day, whom you will serve.” Soren Kierkegaard calls the refusal to choose, to make a decision of faith, cowardice.

“Cowardice wants to prevent the step of making a decision. To accomplish this it takes to itself a host of glorious names. In the name of caution cowardice abhors any over-hastiness. It is against doing anything before the time is ripe…. In the end, failure to decide prevents one from doing what is good.”

The third reason to doubt is the attitude that faith requires definitive proof. To this way of thinking, conclusive proof in the form of rational arguments is essential to faith. Since such proof is lacking, faith is, what Mark Twain defined as, “believing what any fool knows ain’t so.” But no person can be forced to believe by logic. Faith does not come to a person by being argued into it. If this were so, the smarter people would be the first to believe, and the duller people the last. But the opposite may be true. Paul, who, despite doing a lot of arguing himself, quoted Isaiah 29:14

“ ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world.”

Intelligence levels have little to do with faith. You cannot reach a conclusion about faith in Christ based upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Faith requires a risk, a leap, or it would not be faith. It is a decision without complete proof and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Faith is a leap based not on proof but trust in the evidence that is available. There is no life without this kind of trust. We decide what is worthy of our trust without requiring absolute proof. We trust ourselves to all sorts of people, machinery and organizations because we have enough evidence that they are worthy of our trust. We do not completely understand many things we trust every day, e.g. banks, automobiles, airplanes, telephones, computers. But because we have evidence that they work, we use them, act on them, put our trust in them. We are called to examine, not proofs for the existence of God, but evidence of a loving relationship with the personal God. Frederick Buechner writes,

“We all want to be certain, we all want proof, but the kind of proof that we tend to want – scientifically or philosophically demonstrable proof that would silence all doubts once and for all – would not, in the long run, I think, answer the fearful depths of our need at all. For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind to keep the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-to-day lives who might not be writing messages about himself in the stars but who in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world. It is not objective proof of God’s existence that we want but, whether we use religious language for it or not, the experience of God’s presence. That is the miracle we are really after.” (The Magnificent Defeat)

The fourth reason to doubt is the belief that faith comes through miracles. If only we could see a miracle happening! Would we believe? Witnessing miracles does not automatically generate faith. Take the Pharisees for example. “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence they still would not believe in him…..For this reason they could not believe.” Lynn Anderson comments on St. John’s conclusion:

“What an ominous statement. Notice that the unbelief of the people John was describing was a choice. Faith in Jesus would have threatened their vested interests. Consciously or unconsciously, they had chosen to set their hearts against Christ and had continued choosing not to believe in spite of miraculous proof over a long period of time. Finally, their hearts so hardened that even the miraculous signs of Jesus himself would not touch them! It is possible to reject faith so often that we can wind up actually dismantling our believing machinery. The mightiest signs and wonders cannot change our hearts! Only the Spirit of God can do that! Through the gospel, the Spirit of God can move us to choose faith. But even then, he will not force us – only touch us, convict us, call us on. How we respond is entirely up to us.”

If you ask people who do not believe in Christ, what it would take for them to believe they usually mention one of these reasons to doubt. They want a miracle, or conclusive proof, or they want to wait for divine intervention, or they or their peer group think that faith is anti-intellectual. These reasons, I believe, are ill-founded.

There are plenty of reasons to doubt. We can always find a reason to avoid believing in God and serving him. The choice is ours. But God sent his Son so that we might believe. We have to decide whether we are going to worship him or not. Examine the evidence, by all means. Faith can be commitment based on the evidence. Our mind is engaged. But at the end of the day you still have to take a leap of faith if you want to experience God’s presence. Invite the Spirit of God into your life so that you will know the reality of Christ.

What is Man? This question is the point at which the passionate interest of men and the divine message of the Bible meet and come into conflict. Primarily, man regards himself as the natural center of his life and of his world. Even when in theory he thinks that he has overcome this ‘naïve anthropocentrism,’ in practice, in life itself, he does not cease to assert himself as this center. A world with as many centers as there are human beings – that is the cause of all the chaos and disintegration in the world of men. The message of the Bible, therefore is this: God, not man, is the center; this truth must be expressed not only in theory but in practice. Hence this message is not concerned with ‘God in Himself,’ but with ‘God for us,’ the God who manifests His nature and His will in the Son of Man, in order that in man this center may once more become the true center. The great obstacle to this, however, is that view of himself held by man; to overcome this ‘misunderstanding’ of man about himself, to which he clings as a supreme good, is the revealed will of God, and the action which this resistance is overcome is faith. The understanding of man’s being is decided in faith or unbelief; in the fact, that is, whether God or man is the center.

Thus in itself the truth of faith involves discussion, the Gospel is essentially – not accidentally – controversial. It is an attack on man who is his own center. Divine truth wrestles with human falsehood, and man conceals himself behind his ‘self-knowledge’ in order to defend himself against the Divine claim. Hence a Christian doctrine on man must be beaten out on the anvil of continual argument with man’s own view of himself. If faith simply means that human thought and will finally capitulate to the truth and will of God, then theology can never be anything other than an attempt, in some way or another, to ‘transcribe’ this controversy between the Word of God and the thought of man.

(Emil Brunner, Man in Revolt, 1939)

When I was eleven years old my grandmother died suddenly at the age of fifty nine. Her death was shock to me. I could not understand how a person so vibrant and alive one moment could be gone the next. I can remember seeing her laid out in her coffin in her bedroom and wondering what had happened to her. Where had she gone? She had been a daily presence in my life up to then as she lived in the next block to us. I spent a lot of time at her house. She took me to the movies and would bake the best peanut brownies for me. I can still hear the sound of the feet of my uncle pounding on the pavement as he ran past my bedroom window early in the morning to tell us that she had passed away.

Her death raised for me questions about the meaning of life and death. What happened when we die? What was life all about? It did not seem logical to me that life ended and there was nothing more. Were we all just physical bodies that deteriorated and moldered away in the grave? But losing a limb did not end life. There seemed to be more to life than our bodies. “God has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God had done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

I read a letter by Benjamin Franklin to a friend who had lost a loved one.

I condole with you, we have lost a most dear and valuable relation, but it is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter the real life; this world is rather an embryo state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead… We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God. When they become unfit for these purposes, and afford us pain instead of pleasure – instead of an aid, become an encumbrance and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way.

We ourselves prudently choose a partial death. In some cases a mangled limb, which cannot be restored, we willingly cut off. He who plucks out a tooth, parts with it freely since the pain goes with it, and he that quits the whole body, parts at once with all pains and possibilities of pains and diseases it was liable to, or capable of making him suffer.

But where do we go and what form do we take? We men and women are creatures who possess a consciousness that can imagine amazing things and make sense out of all kinds of impressions and data. We have values that are more than physical and material. We are capable of great acts of love, generosity and kindness as well as cruelty and hate. In this life there seems to be no enduring justice or fairness. Is there an accounting beyond the grave, a judgment we all must face one day?

I grew up in New Zealand in the Second World War. My sister and I used to plan what we would do if the Japanese invaded. We would run up into the Southern Alps and hide and they would never find us. I can remember the elation of VJ Day and the victory celebrations. But as the troops returned we heard horrific stories of the cruelty of the POW camps and way in which our men and women in south-east Asia were used as slave laborers, starved, punished and executed. Unless there is an eternal reckoning and a sense of a final judgment beyond this life then this life is, as Shakespeare put it, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

When I was 14 years old a team of missionaries came to my home town and conducted a series of meetings in our church. I heard for the first time that Jesus said to Martha who was grieving because her brother Lazarus died, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

This struck me like lightning. The Holy Spirit spoke to me through those words. They addressed my questions and concerns. Here was a reality that had substance because it was doubly authenticated by the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the resurrection of Jesus. He was not talking about something that was future but present. It was an eternal life that was available now. My life has an unbroken continuity in Jesus. He is what I need. He is the “I am”, the eternal present one. In union with Christ my life is permanent not transitory. He completes my life. My life finds its fulfillment in him. My life will live on even though my earthly body dies. Through the change in my mortal remains I pass through the gate of death into the fuller life of heaven. Through faith in Christ death is not what it seems to be (q.v. 1 Corinthians 15).

The last words of King Edward the Confessor parallel the words of Jesus: “Weep not, I shall not die but live; and as I leave the land of the dying I trust to see the blessings of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who was with God before the foundation of the world, before I was ever conceived. Through him all things were made. In him is life. To be united in faith, hope and love to Jesus is to share already now the life that is beyond death. Death becomes the gateway to life and life is no longer bounded or threatened by death because it is the life which is raised out of death. Death cannot extinguish it.

If this is so, then I realized that to believe in Jesus is necessary to obtain this assurance. How could I move this revelation from my mind, my intellect, my reason, my consciousness, to the personal relationship that Jesus implied? I couldn’t! It was not possible for me to think my way into what Jesus meant by “believe in me.” I was not worthy of such a relationship. I was too flawed, too egotistical, too self-centered, too self-conscious to enter into and to expect to have an intimate fellowship with the Son of God, the bearer and author of life. What he had to give and what I wanted was real but unobtainable by me in my sinful condition.

Then the missionary quoted another word of Jesus. “Behold I stand at the door [of your life] and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

Jesus was standing in front of me and knocking for entry. He would not force his way into my life but was waiting patiently after suffering and dying on the Cross for my sins, to be invited in. What I could not do on my own, in my own strength, by my own merit, he graciously offered to do if I would open the door and welcome him into my life.

As a boy of fourteen I bowed my head and asked him to come into my life. He entered and brought with him a banquet to share with me: eternal life, forgiveness, the power of the Holy Spirit to live a new life, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

Jesus said to Martha, “Do you believe this?” He says it to you, “Do you believe this?” Then open the door and invite him into your life as your Savior and Lord.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18)

What is the message of the cross?

Why is it foolishness to those who are perishing?

Why is it the power of God to those who are being saved?

What is the message of the cross?

The cross is central to Christianity and its enduring symbol. What was a means of gruesome execution has been turned into the sign of God’s love, mercy and grace. On the cross God was in Christ reconciling the rebellious and disobedient world to himself. Christ died as an atonement for our sins. God, the mighty Creator, made himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, humbled himself and became obedient to death on the cross so that we could be forgiven and enter into his kingdom. The perfect and Holy One became sin for us so that we might be redeemed. “Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8).

Kelly M. Kapic, professor at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Georgia writes:

God can’t taste dust, get sick, or become hungry. Nor can God die. Such events apply only to creatures that have bodies. Out of his love the Father sent his Son in the Spirit to take on genuine flesh, to become fully human. Only in this way can the eternal Lord – the God who cannot die – enter the reality of suffering and death. Only in this way can the God of light face the darkness of the devil. Only as incarnate can God enter the pit of the grave in order to fill it with life. His death encompasses both the physical and the spiritual aspects of his humanity in their unity. Jesus physically suffered, and Jesus actually died.

Jesus’ substitutionary life and death changes everything for us, for he is the great revelation of the eternal God’s love and commitment to us. “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” (1 Cor 1:20). When the pain of our suffering overwhelms us, when the confusion of broken relationships warps our vision and threatens to crush us in despair, when unrealized hopes now seem only to taunt us, we look to the suffering servant who became one with us and offered himself in our place. And in so doing, he changed the narrative and the reality of the world. He brought light to darkness, life to death, hope to despair. In him everything does look different, even our sickness and grief. (Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering, p.97f.)

Why is it foolishness to those who are perishing?

Those who are perishing are those who are on the road to destruction. They are on the broad way. They are those who claim to be wise in the ways of the world. Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” He goes on to argue, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world. For since in the wisdom of the world the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” He characterized those who do not believe as demanding miraculous signs and worldly wisdom (proofs). “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”

It is foolishness to the unbeliever because the message of the cross is preached “not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor.2:13-14)

The unspiritual man, is the man who lives as if there were nothing beyond physical life and there were no needs other than material needs, whose values are all physical and material. A man like that cannot understand spiritual things….A man who has never a thought beyond this world cannot understand the things of God. To him they look mere foolishness. (William Barclay)

John Stott wrote that the message of the cross: “undermines self-righteousness and challenges self-indulgence.” No wonder the non-Christian rejects it. Islam rejects the message of the cross. The Koran sees no need for the sin-bearing death of a Savior for ‘each man shall reap the fruits of his own deeds.’ It denies that Jesus died on the cross. The Cross of Christ is a stumbling block and the atonement foolishness to the Muslim as well as to all who do not follow Christ.

Why is it the power of God to those who are saved?

“I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Rom.1:16) How do we know this? Because we have experienced its saving power in our own lives. Have you experienced this saving power? How can you?

John Stott recounts the experience of an Iranian student.

Brought up to read the Koran, say his prayers and lead a good life, he nevertheless knew that he was separated from God by his sins. When Christian friends brought him to church and encouraged him to read the Bible, he learnt that Jesus Christ had died for his forgiveness. ‘For me the offer was irresistible and heaven-sent,’ he said, and he cried to God to have mercy on him through Christ. Almost immediately ‘the burden of my past life was lifted. I felt as if a huge weight…had gone. With the relief and sense of lightness came incredible joy. At last it had happened. I was free of my past. I knew that God had forgiven me, and I felt clean. I wanted to shout, and tell everybody.’ It was through the cross that the character of God came clearly into focus for him, and that he found Islam’s missing dimension, ‘the intimate fatherhood of God and the deep assurance of sins forgiven’. (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p.42)

The message of the cross is not only salvation from past condemnation but it is also salvation from present weakness. We die to the tyranny of sin and are freed to live a new life in Christ. We are raised to a new life in the power of the Spirit of Christ. The cross gives us the power to share in Christ’s suffering in this life so that we may share in his glory in the future. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. If God is for us in this way, how can we lose? “If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us. Embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us” (Rom. 8:32, The Msg).

“The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails – given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making of many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

Now all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:10-14)

The words of God’s commandments are like goads, like firmly embedded nails. St. Paul heard the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14) This is a Greek proverb for useless resistance. Goads were used to keep oxen walking straight on the road. It is a spiked stick meant to drive, incite or stimulate. The upright and true words of Scripture are meant to keep us on the narrow road that leads to life (Matt.7:14). It is fearful to stray from the paths of righteousness. Saul thought he was doing God’s will but instead he was destroying the church.

“The Whole Duty of Man”, published in 1657 became a standard devotional guide in England for two centuries. Faith itself was regarded as a duty and defined as belief in the literal validity of every word in Holy Scripture together with threats of wrath and everlasting destruction. There is little good news and the purpose of preaching is seen as merely to remind us of our duties. This led to a form of Christianity that was pure moralism and legalistic. I don’t think this was the intention of Ecclesiastes for there is much in the book about the gift of joy. Martin Luther, who was rescued from legalism by the Gospel of grace wrote, “we may happily enjoy the things that are present and not care at all about the things that are in the future, lest we permit the present moment, our moment, to slip away.”

The commandments give us boundaries and guidelines to keep us from going off the rails and hurting ourselves and others. They are not meant to be burdensome or to kill our joy in the Lord. However we must not ignore them or flout them as though there are no consequences, for a world that has no moral sense, no conscience, no reverence for God’s commands, descends into chaos and anarchy.

Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:9-11)

In the midst of a time when there are wars and rumors of war, of international competition and conflict between opposing religions, ideologies and political views there are voices that cry out for peace when there is no peace. Perhaps such conflict is the norm in a world that has rebelled against God and his revelation, that has rejected biblical morality and instead seeks satisfaction in selfish indulgence. The following is an excerpt from the writing of Emil Brunner who experienced both world wars and saw the evil that men do.

“The recent terrible years of the world war and of the preceding totalitarian revolutions have shown us that the understanding of man is the basis of all social order and of all culture. The acknowledgment of a human dignity which is not from man but is bestowed by God is the presupposition of all political and social justice and freedom. The denial of this dignity is equivalent to the total abandonment of man to the power of the state and is in principle identical with the principle of the totalitarian states. The totalitarian state can arise, and is bound to arise, wherever the idea of human dignity has been lost. The idea of human dignity, however, is historically and in principle none other than the idea of man’s being created in the image of God….

The picture which the New Testament gives of the historical process until the day of Christ is in exact concordance with historical reality as we know it, and therefore in strictest opposition to the modern idea of progress, even in its pseudo-Christian form which mistakenly sees the New Testament gospel of the coming kingdom as an immanent upward movement. Nowhere does the New Testament promise an earthly state of peace, of social justice, or universal international relationships conforming to the idea of justice and humanity….Every conception of the time-process influenced by the idea of progress is unmasked as utopian, contradicted by reality just as much as by biblical doctrine….The perspective of the gospel is eternity. Anything perfect cannot be brought about in the narrow frame of temporality and terrestrial life. Resurrection is eternal life breaking up the framework of historical existence.

That is why utopias of historical progress cannot seduce those who believe in Christ. Utopias are the straws to to which those cling, who have no real hope; utopias are as unattractive as they are incredible for those who know what real hope is. Utopias are not a consequence of true hope but a poor substitute for it and therefore a hindrance and not a help. The hope that is in Jesus Christ is different from all utopias of universal progress.

The foolishness of the gospel is divine wisdom to all who have been healed of the perversion which consists in making man’s reason and goodness the judge of all truth, that perversion which places man instead of God in the center of the universe. The gospel is identical with the healing of this perversion, which in its depth and real significance is diabolical. It is the victory of God’s light over the powers of darkness.”

(Emil Brunner, The Scandal of Christianity, 1948)

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,

before the days of trouble come

and the years approach when you will say,

‘I find no pleasure in them’-

before the sun and the light

and the moon and the stars grow dark,

and the clouds return after the rain;

when the keepers of the house tremble,

and the strong men stoop,

when the grinders cease because they are few,

and those looking through the windows grow dim;

when the doors of the street are closed

and the sound of grinding fades;

when men rise up at the sound of birds,

but all their songs grow faint;

when men are afraid of heights

and of dangers in the street;

when the almond tree blossoms

and the grasshopper drags himself along

and desire is no longer stirred.

Then man goes to his eternal home

and mourners go about the streets.

Remember him-before the silver cord is severed,

and the golden bowl is broken;

before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,

or the wheel broken at the well,

and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who made it.”

(Ecclesiastes 12:1-7)

This famous passage describing old age is preceded by “Be happy young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.” As a youth I was consumed by questions concerning the meaning of life and death on the occasion of my grandmother’s sudden early death at fifty-eight. It seemed illogical to me that a person I loved should one day be taken from me and no longer exist. At fourteen years old I could not comprehend old age and death. Now, at eighty four, I have experienced the ravages of physical decline described in this passage. I have had eye and knee surgery, heart surgery, dental surgery, and suffer from arthritis. However, I am profoundly grateful that I discovered my Creator in the days of my youth due to the proclamation of the Gospel through my local church (see above). At a missionary week I learned that the risen Jesus stood at the door of my heart knocking to enter. He was saying to me: “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25,26) I invited him into my life and am anticipating being healed of my physical afflictions in the eternal home to which I am going. As God has given me life in this world he will fulfill it in the life to come. In seventy years of living with the presence, power and peace of Christ he has led me through many challenges and dangers, to give thanks in all circumstances. My prayer is that all youth will be able to enjoy the promises of the Gospel at such an early age so that they will have no regrets as they enter into old age. I pray that for my children and grandchildren, nephews and nieces.

“Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.” (NIV)

“Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns. Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around. Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night….Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life….Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted.”

(The Message, Ecclesiastes 11)

An old hymn echoes the theme of generosity and taking the long view of your life.

1. “Cast thy bread upon the waters,
Ye who have but scant supply;
Angel eyes will watch above it;
You shall find it by and by;
He who in his righteous balance,
Doth each human action weigh,
Will your sacrifice remember,
Will your loving deeds repay.

2. “Cast thy bread upon the waters;
Sad and weary, worn with care,
Wherefore sitting in the shadow?
Surely you’ve a crumb to spare.
Can you not to those around you
Sing some little song of hope,
As you look with longing vision
Thro’ faith’s mighty telescope?

3. “Cast thy bread upon the waters,”
Ye who have abundant store;
It may float on many a billow,
It may strand on many a shore;
You may think it lost forever,
But, as sure as God is true,
In this life, or in the other,
It will yet return to you.

Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38)

Think of yourself from first to last:

Guard yourself from the wintry blast;

Feed your stomach and quench your thirst;

Feather your nest and feather it first;

Fly to your pleasures and dance them through-

There’s nobody else in this world but you.

 

Think of yourself-and right or wrong,

Give no thought to the passing throng.

What if your conduct should bring to shame

Those who honor and share your name?

What if they’re hurt by the things you do?

Why should their suffering trouble you?

 

Live for yourself, but don’t complain

When you have come to the world’s disdain.

Don’t return when the night’s come on

And wonder where all your friends have gone.

Carry no burden except your own,

But always be ready to weep alone.

 

But if you wish for the happy years

And the love of a friend who sees your tears,

Ad the world’s respect and an honored name,

And all the joys which the gentle claim,

You must think of others in all you do-

You must think of them first, and last of you.

(Edgar A. Guest)

“Lord, give us more charity, more self-denial, more likeness to you. Teach us to sacrifice our comforts to others, and our likings for the sake of doing good. Make us kindly in thought, gentle in word, generous in deed. Teach us that it is better to give than to receive; better to forget ourselves than to put ourselves forward; better to minister than to be ministered unto. And unto you, the God of love, be glory and praise forever.” (Henry Alford, 1810-71)

Many of us struggle with doubt even though we have faith and want to believe. For many people doubt is difficult because of the damage done them in childhood or in the trauma of life. Doubt may have its roots in our basic temperament, or our particular stage in life. Doubt and faith co-exist for many. Yet that may be more normal than you imagine. In fact, there may be a value in experiencing doubt.

Gary E. Parker has written about this in his book, The Gift of Doubt: From crisis to authentic faith. He claims that doubt can do us good, that doubt is not always evil, and that doubt can help us to have a stronger faith. “If we maintain an openness to new truth …we might find that uncertainty can actually enliven and strengthen our faith. Dr. Clark Pinnock proposes, ‘There is also a good side to this sort of uncertainty… Doubt can spur deeper reflection and further discovery…. Doubting may lead to greater certainty.’”

First of all, doubt can test the truth of faith. Thomas Gutherie wrote, “Are not many damned just because they never doubt? They go on, satisfied with themselves; not doubting but that they are on the right course, when every step they take leads them further and further astray.” An unexamined faith may be a false faith.

Second, doubt destroys faith that doesn’t deserve our continued allegiance. A naïve trust in something or someone who doesn’t deserve it is destructive. People learn that too much faith in corrupt political leaders, or unfaithful spouses, or fair-weather friends leads to disappointment. Thinking the best of someone, who continually lets you down and doesn’t follow through on promises, is unhealthy. To continue to believe in something that has proved itself unworthy of our faith shows our credulity rather than our common sense.

Third, doubt enhances a faith that proves itself worthy of commitment. Doubt takes faith and exercises it so that it cannot help but grow stronger. If faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power? How can it enhance its power if it never exercises its perception? A faith that struggles with doubt becomes strong through that struggle.

Rufus Jones (1863-1948), the Quaker pastor and teacher in Maine once wrote,

“A twice-born faith, a rebuilt faith, is superior to an inherited faith that has never stood the strain of a great testing storm. If you have not clung to a broken piece of your old ship in the dark night of the soul, your faith may not have the sustaining power to carry you through to the end of the journey.”

Fourth, doubt forces us to find reasons for our faith. Many deny that doubt has any value. This attitude flies in the face of the biblical approach where the apostles argued, debated, and discussed, with people of many faiths, in order to prove the validity of their claims. We cannot expect people to listen to our beliefs if we cannot explain the reasons for our faith. Doubt forces us to express our belief in coherent and rational statements. Doubt makes us deal honestly with the troublesome issues of life. Faith does not require us to bury our heads in the sand lest we be disturbed. True faith will enable us to look difficulties in the eye, and respond with integrity to the truth we know. If you struggle with misgivings and uncertainties, do not be forced by a false sense of Christian piety to hide your doubts. Faithful men and women in history have struggled greatly with the fire of doubt burning within them.

Like a fire that burns away the underbrush so new trees can reach new heights, our doubts can help us achieve a faith that grows stronger and reigns supreme in spite of the uncertainties we often face. I don’t believe everything people tell me. The world is filled with people trying to sell me something that will benefit them rather than me. Too many people are ripped off by con artists. If something is too good to be true it usually is. Doubt in these cases is very valuable. It may prevent you from losing your shirt. It is healthy to question the claims of others.

(Ted Schroder, Buried Treasure, 22-26, Soul Food, Volume 1, 159-162)

In reading about the work of Emil Brunner (1899-1966) when he was faced with the rise of Communism, Fascism and Hitler I am impressed by how he understood the role of Christian preaching, teaching and writing. He wrote that the church could not ignore the fact that it exists in a world shaped by a variety of understandings of life, some of which are benign, and others dangerous. We must intellectually engage with the surrounding culture, debate issues of the day and offer responses to situations and questions that are specific to a given situation. Preaching proclaims the Word of God but it speaks to people. Simply proclaiming pure doctrine is insufficient. We need to engage with the contemporary concerns of humanity, challenging people’s illusions and helping them realize that their true concerns are not what they believe them to be. We must address the current situation of our hearers. The Gospel challenges human notions of autonomy and shatters our narcissistic thinking in which we are always at the center instead of God. We have to be aware of the temptations of modern ideologies that prioritize the goodness of humanity instead of our need of God’s grace.

What are these ideologies and our cultural context?

As I survey the world around me I see an obsession with entertainment, information and opinion influencers. We are saturated with constant media conveying news, movies, business, concerts and sports. Our culture is materialistic, commercial driven and designed to stimulate personal pleasure and human fulfillment. Our feelings need to be indulged. Whatever gives us a kick is to be desired. There are no guard-rails, no inhibitions, no morality. Physical pleasure is paramount. Appearance and longevity, health and wealth are our objectives. Anything that stands in the way of our comfort is to be jettisoned. Our religion is self-fulfillment, God is our servant not our master. We worship ourselves for are we not worth it?

As a result faithful, lifelong marriage has been abandoned. People believe that the state is there to provide for their every need. Luxury is to be coveted. Death and suffering is to be avoided, delayed or denied. Affluence is our goal. Sex and gender is malleable. Committed relationships are discounted. Whatever is convenient is preferred.

Compare these modern cultural ideologies with the divine revelation in Scripture. What does Jesus as the Word of God have to say about these egotistical self-centered attitudes? They are doomed and antithetical to human flourishing. Instead: “Enter the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (NIV) “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life – to God! – is vigorous and requires total attention.” (The Message. Matthew 7:13,14) “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? Come to me. Get away with me, and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message) This is what we need to hear.